You need confirm if you are getting Tire vibrations, Propshaft vibrations of Engine vibrations if the vibrations are present while causing. If only present doing braking it's most likely wrongly installed bushings - or wrapped rotors..
[E39 540i] - with S/C ESS kit (plus some upgrades)
[E34 540iA] - Gone
Emphasis above. It is not a braking issue, only cruising.
I am starting to get driveshaft vibrations around 15mph (it's always something ready to be repaired), and there are brand new tires (road force balanced) on the car when I started this thread. Since then, I've put about 200 miles on everything.
Just for fun, check if any of the little weights for balancing have somehow fallen off - long shot but :
I'm confused - are these new ones driveshaft or front suspension vibrations?
gmak: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. A journey with my new-to-me 2000 540i
"Working on a BMW E39 is the best way to run out of time."
98 540i 6, 525 whp, 120 mph 1/4, V3 Si S/C'er @16 psi, W/A I/C, Water/Meth, Supersprint Headers, HJS Cats, 3" Custom Exhaust, UUC Twin Disc, Wavetrac LSD, GC Coil Overs, Monoball TA, AEM FP, Aeromotive FPR, AEM Failsafe AFR/Boost, Style 65's w/275's, M5 Steering Box, Eibach Sways, M3 Shifter, Evans Coolant, 85 Deg Stat, PWM Fan, 10" Subs, B.A. speakers, Grom Aux/BT, Still Rolling as my DD!
Tires are Bridgestone RE050A. No flat spots, had the tires balance checked again last night (no visibly missing weights).
This thread is about me replacing my thrust arm bushings, the vibration coming back, replacing everything and only having 2 days and ~120 miles on every brand new front end component(incl. tires) before the shake came back. The tiny driveshaft vibrations at 15mph are not responsible for my steering wheel shaking heavily at 55mph; I'm not sure what's confusing everyone about this?... The only reason I mentioned the driveshaft earlier is because someone asked about it, and I probably couldn't notice the small vibrations coming from there with all the previous shaking in the thrust arms.
Last edited by pbussey; 07-27-2017 at 10:08 AM.
This thread can be about a bunch of things because all these items are connected. We already established the brakes were a big part of the problem. Fixed that but now you again have a vibration. From some of your posts, it sounded like flat spots may have been any issue. Assuming your tire guy knows what he is doing, I guess we can rule out the tires. Are the wheels bent at all? If the wheels are ok and you say the front suspension is all new, it comes down to installation error.
Apologies for the late reply, I've been out backpacking. I knew the shimmy would return based on my personal experience and have also become very proficient at removing/reinstalling those damn things.
Unforch, AFAIK, there is no coupon for the G.A.S. Mono-balls, HOWEVER, you might try to get a group buy going again (the reason I got such a good deal was because I snapped up the last titanium set in the previous group buy...WHEW! ). I am seriously considering replacing the Powerflex on the '00 as well because the '03 drives LIKE A DREAM after replacement of the Powerflex with the mono-balls so I may be jumping on-board this time too.
I can't guarantee that it will solve your issue (which sounds so damn similar to my experience) but it did for my '03 M-sport. FYI, I've tried many different solutions to this annoying issue with the thrust arm/mono-ball modification being the ONLY thing that actually has worked over an extended period of time...
'00 540iA Sport w/235k+ Original TCG's, Vanos and transmission.*Trans failure at 244k+...FS Now
-1 Ryan...no insult but I totally disagree. I, like the OP and many others, understand the importance of properly "weighting" the suspension before torquing but the same infamous shimmy keeps returning. FME, after replacement with the mono-ball TAB kit, the issue has been COMPLETELY resolved on my '03 M-sport. The Powerflex Black solution on the '00 AND '03 resulted in a reduction of NVH, however, it was still there. Just my 2-cents...
'00 540iA Sport w/235k+ Original TCG's, Vanos and transmission.*Trans failure at 244k+...FS Now
Could be bent rim and or out of round tire. They can balance fine believe it or not.
98 540i 6, 525 whp, 120 mph 1/4, V3 Si S/C'er @16 psi, W/A I/C, Water/Meth, Supersprint Headers, HJS Cats, 3" Custom Exhaust, UUC Twin Disc, Wavetrac LSD, GC Coil Overs, Monoball TA, AEM FP, Aeromotive FPR, AEM Failsafe AFR/Boost, Style 65's w/275's, M5 Steering Box, Eibach Sways, M3 Shifter, Evans Coolant, 85 Deg Stat, PWM Fan, 10" Subs, B.A. speakers, Grom Aux/BT, Still Rolling as my DD!
I just did powerflexes on my X5. The vibration is still there at higher speeds when trailing on the brakes. I'm chalking it up to Chinese brand rotors from the PO that got warped from my heavy traffic use, them being cheap, and the busted old bushings that were contributing to uneven pad deposits from all the shaking.
New OEM rotors going on next month.
I replaced thrust arms on my 1998 750IL with Lemforders and preinstalled Sachs bushings in them. Remember, Lemforder thrust arms do not come with any bushings originally. Most of the time they come with preinstalled Sachs bushings. Mine failed only after one cross country trip from Southwest FL to Chicago IL and back. It was oil spots at the bottom of each bushing metal housing which gave me an idea they were shot. These parts are hard to inspect. Bets way to inspect them in my opinion is using larger size locking wise grips on arm itself close to bushing and try twisting it to clockwise and counter clockwise while looking at some tiny cracks or fluid evidence, have really good LED flash light pointed at the suspect location. Because it was under warranty from FCPEuro I replaced them with Meyle HD's. So far so good.
Shot tie rod can also give you a described vibration, only in cases if ball joint is really giving out and has significant play. Vibration to steering wheel > suspension, steering. Vibration to brake pedal > brakes.
Current >2002 BMW M Roadster Hellrot red 21k miles, CAT/EGRdeleted (Epic Motorsports custom tune), 1999 BMW M3 Estoril Blue 36k miles, 1999 BMW 540 iTa Touring Sport package 27k miles, 2012 BMW X5 35d Malone stage 2 custom tune, deleted, 109K miles
Retired > 1980 BMW 323i Alpine 160+K km, 1997 BMW 740i at 83K Miles, 1998 BMW 323IS at 164K Miles, 1994 BMW 325IC at 68K Miles, 1979 Mercedes 450SL at 91K Miles, 1990 Mercedes 300CE at 64K Miles, 1998 BMW 750IL at 84K Miles Black, 2000 BMW 750IL Individual Highline 81K Miles Orinoco Metallic, 2000 BMW 528IT 58K Miles Black, 2000 BMW 740i Sport 124K Titanium Silver, 2012 Chevrolet Volt 59K Miles, 2003 BMW 540i M Sport 89K miles
Sigh ...once more. I went that route on BOTH 5'ers ('00 and '03) and as I stated, the NVH was reduced but was and still is noticeable (on the '00). AFTER replacing the Powerflex on the '03 with the mono-balls, ALL of the NVH, shimmy, brake-n-shake, WHATEVER you want to call it...is GONE! If you're feeling it in the front end and through the steering wheel, I'm of the strong opinion that it is TAB related and can be solved by replacing those MF's with the mono-balls...end of rant.
Note: I also replaced the thrust arms with OEM BMW just to be safe. Regardless, the mono-balls in combo with the OEM TA's solved all of the issues related to NVH on the '03 M-sport...truly end of rant.
'00 540iA Sport w/235k+ Original TCG's, Vanos and transmission.*Trans failure at 244k+...FS Now
Violin. Yeah, going mono removes all movement of this pivot and changes the natural frequency of the collective assy. This works for sure to prevent oscillations.
I am on all original front suspension arms, tie rods, center link, and pitman at 163k. I've only replaced the TABs with x5 meyle hd. No shimmy or vibrations at any speed or braking action. I've learned that these cars need perfectly round wheels and tires, and good brakes. Any pulsations get exaggerated since the whole suspension assembly natural frequency matches too close and causes the issues we e39 guys see.
Ive spun suspect wheels on the rear while jacked up engine turning them. Any out of round is easily spotted. Even after road force balancing.
98 540i 6, 525 whp, 120 mph 1/4, V3 Si S/C'er @16 psi, W/A I/C, Water/Meth, Supersprint Headers, HJS Cats, 3" Custom Exhaust, UUC Twin Disc, Wavetrac LSD, GC Coil Overs, Monoball TA, AEM FP, Aeromotive FPR, AEM Failsafe AFR/Boost, Style 65's w/275's, M5 Steering Box, Eibach Sways, M3 Shifter, Evans Coolant, 85 Deg Stat, PWM Fan, 10" Subs, B.A. speakers, Grom Aux/BT, Still Rolling as my DD!
interesting. I don't doubt that the mono ball kit would fix the shimmy problem and be much more robust than the oem solution. I find it peculiar tho that the oem parts don't eliminate the problem as well since that's what the car was designed with and there was no shake coming off the factory. My apologies OP if my original comment came off as an insult, that was not my intention.
I would still examine your wheels before buying more parts. When I was chasing a shimmy when I first bought my car, it was the wheels that eventually fixed it. They road force balanced fine but I got the vibration at highway speeds. This is hard to explain on here but as I made turns and the front wheels changed rotational speed in relation to each other, it forced the out of round spots to change position and change the natural frequency in relation to the rest of the suspension. the vibration would change and get better or worse as I drove around
Good advice but doing that actually just ended up costing me more money...just my personal experience.
Actually, replacing the TA's with Lemforder did work on the '00 but as I've pointed out, the solution was temporary. That was the reason for upgrading to the Powerflex Black, which was better and seems to be lasting but there is still minimal NVH on the '00. The other possible factor with the '03 is that I used BMW TA's. IDK if changing the TA's with the OEM BMW ones made the difference but I've put several hundred miles on the TA's with mono-balls so far and am extremely pleased...
As for road force balancing,out-of-round, flat spotting and even rotors, calipers, sliders, etc....checked all that. I initially went to a racing only place, was told by the "expert" tire guys (can't recall their name because it wasn't noteworthy advice anyway) that spacers in addition to road force balancing was necessary to eliminate the shimmy. Obviously they were full of BS because it didn't fix the issue and cost an additional $80 for the worthless spacers... This is one of the many reasons I DIY...
Anyway, I hope the OP can solve this issue so he can enjoy his incredible, ancient, Ultimate Driving Machine.
'00 540iA Sport w/235k+ Original TCG's, Vanos and transmission.*Trans failure at 244k+...FS Now
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